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Friday, 31 July 2015

Hello there Craft Lovers! Another week, another blog post and I can't believe I've managed to keep this going for 6 months now. It seems very odd to think my first card was made in October and my first blog post at the start of February. In that time I've met some great people in blogland and on Instagram (it's a happy crafting place!), and have made quite a lot of crafty purchases, which in turn have made card recipients also very happy indeed. Enough of me, on to the cards. I did make quite a few crafty purchases this month, one of which was this adorable set In Slow Motion from Newton's Nook. I haven't bought anything from them before, but I have my eye on some more of their things. I'm loving this set and have used it to decorate an envelope, and also made several cards - including this post from a couple of weeks ago - Sloth-some. I was on a bit of a roll mid week when making these, and ended up doing three in one day - unheard of especially with both children around, but somehow I managed it!The first I made in record time while baby was playing in her cot and 4 year old was watching TV - 20 minutes is a record for me!

I had pre-cut the balloons, and just stamped the image onto the card base, as well as onto Copic friendly paper. I placed the balloons where I wanted them and using a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen added in the strings to the worm. I coloured in the worm, cut him out and stuck him onto the image using Multi Matte Medium, adding the string round his middle. The sentiment was stamped on the bottom and I hand drew the border, having seen it done to great effect by Julia Alterman in a recent video (Daydreaming with Inktense Pencils). That's it! So quick!Later in the evening when the children were asleep, I made another two, this time using my new Derwent Inktense pencils. I fell in love with these when I first started blogging, but for some reason I never purchased a set. I now have the tin of all 72 and I still love them. Previous posts include Birthday Express and Birds on a Wire. Both cards were made in a similar way, stamping the images onto the card blank, then onto some Tim Holtz Water Colour Paper, and colouring with various Inktense pencils. I love colouring with these. I then fussy cut both out, and adhered them with foam tape, and drew my border in by hand again, then stamped the sentiment as shown.

His coat has been coloured in with the white Inktense pencil, but it didn't really show up, instead it gave it some interesting texture!

Friday, 24 July 2015

Hello again, fellow crafters, how has your week gone? I can't believe we are well into July and I'm having to think about getting ready for heading off to Scotland to visit my parents and sister at the start of August. Be nice to get away - and into the sea for some chilly swimming!A while ago I was commissioned by my mother in law for some cards, birthday and others. I've finally finished my commission with this lot of little notelets. I've been so taken with the Clearly Besotted miniature florals collection, I've been inking them up and colouring them in at every opportunity!

These were the panels I had created, each with three of the images stamped in Versamark onto half a piece of Tim Holtz water colour card stock, embossed with Wow! Bright white embossing powder and coloured in with various Spectrum Aquas. I did have one panel I coloured in using my new Zig Clean Color Realbrush pens, but I'm not having a very happy time with them - I prefer my Aqua markers - and so I redid it.

It was simply a case of trimming the edges to fit across the front of a 4x4" card (cut down from my 6x6" pre-scored cards) and adhering them with fun foam covered in red tape.

As I didn't have any envelopes small enough, I got out my WRMK Envelope Punch Board and had fun making my own. I think they look really rather sweet as a set.

Friday, 17 July 2015

Hello craft addicts! I really wish all the stamp and craft companies would stop bringing out new dies and stamps every month - said no crafter EVER! That includes me! As I said last week I got some stamps and dies from the new Clearly Besotted release on 5th July. I've scraped out some time to use the fabulous birthday balloons that were designed by Stephanie's (CBs Head Honcho) daughter. They are fabulous and perfect for little ones, so I inked them up to make a couple of cards for my bestest buddy's little ones' birthday - the plural is correct, for there are indeed two!She also asked me if I would do more of a step by step and as baby slept really really well when I was making them, I had some more time to take photos as I went. Hope it makes sense!

Step 1 - I wanted the cards to be bright and cheerful and as I don't have enough Copic Markers to colour the balloon animals as I would like, I chose to ink them onto some Lawn Fawn Let's Polka papers using Memento Tuxedo Black. It's a technique that Lucy Abrams uses with great effect.

Step 2 - I then took the matching dies and placed them round the stamped images and secured them with some Washi tape.

Step 3 - I die cut them out two at a time - I find I don't get enough pressure sometimes with smaller dies if I do too many at once, especially as the die cutting machine cuts best on the top left hand corner!

Step 4 - Once the pieces were die cut out, I trimmed some white card to a size slightly smaller than the pre-cut cards I use. I like 9x13cm, as the cards are 10.5x14.75cm in size.

Step 5 - I like the corners rounded sometimes, so as I don't have a corner rounder, I use the one on the WRMK Envelope Punch board! Works just fine for me at the moment :)

Step 6 - I wanted some nice paper as a background, so I chose some coordinating papers from the Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie collection. I trimmed it to fit the front of my card blank, as it's a 6x6" pad.

Step 7 - I then used some double sided tape to stick it down on the card front. I would love an ATG tape dispenser, but that will be in November's Simon Says Stamp purchase!

Step 8 - There are some balloon strings in the stamp set, so I positioned the balloons and stamped the strings underneath, then with some more double sided tape stuck the balloons on top.

Step 9 - I wanted to add their names, so stamped them on the front underneath in some little letters I got in Hobbycraft.

Step 10 - I didn't want the sentiment on the outside as it would be too cluttered, so I stamped them on the inside.

Step 11 - I wanted a little bit of dimension, but it needed to be firm as it's going in the post to Europe, so I used some fun foam on the back of the panel. It's such a genius idea thanks Jennifer McGuire! Love how you can see my knees in this photo! It's so professional ;)

Step 12 - Done!

A better picture of the cards. Decided not to colour the words, as I liked the clean look.

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Hello! A post mid-week from me to get in to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - I think I have about 15 hours left! I saw it was Furry Friends and Newton's Nook and as part of my happy mail last week from Make the Day Special was my first set from them - In Slow Motion - I couldn't resist.I love this set - I've already used it once to decorate an envelope! - so I thought I'd use the sloth - how can a sloth not be a furry friend?

I had to look up a picture of a sloth on the internet to work out its fur. I stamped the sloth a couple of times to try out what media to colour with. The final result was a strange mixture of Copics, water colour pencil and coloured pencils. The body was coloured in Copics (E57 with C2 on top), with white water colour pencil on the top; the face, claws and branch were then coloured using coloured pencils.

Here's a little close up of the fur - I think it works quite well!

I then fussy cut him out. I also made a mask of the sloth and then the leaves on a post-it note and cut them out.

I positioned the sloth post-it on the card and got to stamping the leaves with some of my greens - Versa Magic Hint of Pesto; Memento Cottage Ivy; Ranger Dye Lily Pad - and masking off the ones I wanted to stand out.

After removing the masks, I positioned where I wanted to emboss my stitched square around the sloth, and then stamped the sentiment on the inside. I then ran it through my Grand Calibur - I need to emboss my dies a lot more. I really like the results.

Normally I'd pop the cut out piece up on foam, but I decided I'd like a more one layer card - it's much cheaper on postage! - so just used some double sided tape.

I'm quite impressed I managed this today, but my 4 year old helped me by sharpening my pencils and doing a bit of colouring beside me while her sister had a long nap. Thanks so much for reading! Hope your week is going really well.

Friday, 10 July 2015

Hello lovely readers! Sharing a very simple card with you today with the cutest set from last month's Clearly Besotted release. Sunday 5th was their latest release and I managed to get some more lovely stuff to play with - can't get enough of their things! The design team do such a good job of inspiring me.On Wednesday it was nursery Sports Day and Graduation. Yes. Nursery graduation. It sounds like a silly idea, but really it's a way of saying farewell to those about to start school in September, and noting that they're about to start a new chapter. We went along to thank all the wonderful staff there who have helped our 4 year old turn into a confident and caring little girl. A card at least was required. (Don't worry, we also made thank you cakes!)

As you can see I've been
practicing with my Copic markers. I met up with a crafty friend last
Friday in the craft shop she works in not too far from here. She was so
wonderfully helpful and I managed to get some more Copics as well as a
myriad of other things.

Apologies that the photo is not great. It's part of my birthday list to get a better camera, but that's not until November, I'm afraid. It is so simple, just one of the CB Let's Roll hedgehogs stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Copic Ciaos (E57, E59 for the prickles; E53, E51 for the face; E18 for the feet and YR02 for the ears). I stamped the mortar board and scroll onto pink paper and die cut them - talk about tiny dies!!! I die cut out the CB Thanks die with some Stick It! on the back to make it easier to adhere to the panel of white card. Stuck the hedgehog in between using Multi Medium Matte glue then his mortar board on top and then the scroll at the bottom. The card blank has two strips of 1.5cm pink card stock at either side and this adds some colour - pink is her favourite colour, which is why I chose it. The main panel is adhered with foam tape and I added some Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents to the scroll. Simple and effective!Thank you for reading as always. Have a fantastic weekend as always.Here's a picture of those Thank You cakes - pink as well of course. It was a brilliant day despite the weather - well it has to rain on Sports Day!

Friday, 3 July 2015

Hello, crafty friends. I don't know about you, but I can't believe it's July already. June was quite a crafty month with the Daily Marker 30 Day 2. I'm sad it's over, because I had so much fun learning new things, but all good things must come to an end, and it's time I started turning all that colouring into cards! Over on Instagram (it's lovely, really lovely, so much inspiration and friendly crafters!) I shared some colouring linked to a baby a friend was expecting. I hedged my bets and did two lots, one in pink and one in blue. I'm not usually quite so generic, but sometimes inspiration is lacking! Anyway, it turned out to be a boy, by the name of George, so blue it is!I stuck with simple and decided to make a shaker too - any chance to get those Lucy Abram's shaker mixes out!

Supplies: White Card Blank (14.75x14.75cm); ME Up And Away Stamps and Dies; Papermania 6x6 Papers Capsule Collection; Memento Tuxedo Black; VersaMagic Dew Drop Night Sky; Derwent Artists Pencils; Caran D'Ache Metallic Pencils; LF Large Stitched Square Lawn Cuts; Acetate; Double-sided Tape; Red tape; Adhesive backed Fun Foam; CB Sweet Little Sentiments; Lucy's Little Things Shaker Sequin selection Glacier; Joe and Flo Baker's Twine; Sellotape Double Sided Sticky Foam Pads; Ranger Multi Medium Matte; Bazzill Cardshoppe - blue; VersaMagic Dew Drop Aspen MistI started by die cutting a square of blue Bazzill Cardshoppe using two of the LF large stitched square lawn cuts to make a frame. I then attached a piece of acetate to the back of the square aperture to start the shaker section. I then hand cut a piece of adhesive backed fun foam to match the size of the frame, and stuck it down on the back of my blue card. Face down on my craft mat I then filled the shaker section with lots of Lucy's lovely sequins and things. I then attached some very sticky red tape to the back of the fun foam, positioned it face down on my craft mat and attached the card base on the top. I'm getting better at this the more I do and this one is not too squint!I then attached some baker's twine to the back of the balloons and then to the monkey's hand. Then, with double sided sticky foam pads, attached them to the card front as shown.The sentiment is stamped in Aspen Mist and attached with sticky foam pads. The additional sequins started by covering a slight smudge, but I added a few more so it wasn't quite so obvious! They are stuck on with the Multe Medium Matte.Hope you survived the mid week heat wave - that'll be summer over now in the UK, we've already had torrential rain today!Do enjoy your weekend, whatever the weather. Thanks, as always, for reading :)

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I've been paper crafting and card making for three years now, grabbing time when I can in between looking after two children. When I started my children napped, but now they are older I have to find time in evenings and when they telly is on :) Happy Crafting Everyone!